[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Seeker

Every so often the newpaper comes out with a yeary magazine that describes incomes and jobs across the US. If I happen to make thousands of dollars more than my counterpart in another state, what does it really mean?

We get that magazine, too. It means very little. There are so many variables that comparing is impossible.

I also get a magazine called Medical Economics that publishes a survey of physician income each year. The range for my speciality, family practice, is fairly broad. I'm usually somewhere near the middle. Does that mean much? Not really. I could change jobs anytime I wanted to and increase my income probably up to 50%. But the new job wouldn't be comparable in hours, duties, responsibility, scheduling flexibility, maybe proximity to my house, etc. The doctor down the road might make 30K more than me, but he might also handle patients at a couple of hospitals, oversee a nursing home, have Saturday hours, etc. Maybe he does some in-office cosmetic procedures. So just knowing he is also a family doctor and looking at salary figures doesn't tell me much of anything without knowing the rest of the story.